Is Shun Birch an innocent man framed by a group of drug-dealing felons, or is he a hired assassin who killed a state witness in exchange for drugs and money?

A Denver jury began deliberating those questions Wednesday afternoon after prosecutors and defense attorneys gave their closing arguments in the two-week trial.

Birch, 29, is charged with first-degree murder, felony first-degree murder, burglary and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and faces life in prison if he is convicted.

Kalonniann Clark was shot to death Dec. 6, 2006, just days before she was set to testify that gang leader Brian Kenneth Hicks shot at her outside a Denver nightclub. The two had a long-running dispute before the shooting.

Hicks was concerned he would spend decades in prison for attempting to kill Clark and is heard urging his gang underlings to “Get it done,” in recorded slang-filled phone calls from the jail.

Last month, Hicks was convicted of ordering the hit and sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors say Hicks asked his “right-hand man,” Willie D. Clark, to carry out the killing and find someone to help him do it for $20,000.

A trial date for Willie Clark has not been set. He is already serving life plus 1,152 years for the murder of Denver Broncos player Darrent Williams and for shooting at 16 others in a limousine on New Year’s Day 2007.

Prosecutor Tim Twining told jurors in his closing argument that Willie Clark recruited Birch to help him kill Kalonniann Clark and it was Birch who broke down the door of her home, chased her outside and put the fatal bullet into her head.

“Do not let this man get away with murder,” Twining said while pointing at Birch in the courtroom.

Throughout the trial, former gang associates and boyhood friends of Hicks and Willie Clark detailed a criminal conspiracy to have Kalonniann Clark killed before she could tell her story in court.

But defense attorney Frank Moya attacked the prosecution’s case, which he said was based largely on the testimony of felons and gang members who got reductions in their criminal cases in exchange for their testimony. Two witnesses may escape life sentences if prosecutors convince a judge that they cooperated in this case.

Moya held up a magnified version of the “Get Out of Jail Free” card found in the Monopoly game and waved it at the jurors. He also showed them the card with photographs of some of the prosecution’s witnesses pasted over the face of Rich Uncle Pennybags from the game.

“They were passing those cards out like popcorn,” Moya said of the prosecution. “That is the most valuable thing they can offer people behind bars. That is how innocent people get convicted, ladies and gentlemen. It is.”

He also criticized Denver police for rushing to judgment about Birch’s involvement and argued detectives had “blinders on” and did not consider suspects who didn’t fit their theory.

“Mr. Birch’s involvement was developed over time through all of these witnesses,” prosecutor Ann Marie Spain said in her rebuttal. “He was not a snap judgment.”

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